New bats (Mammalia: Chiroptera) from the late Eocene and early Oligocene, Fayum Depression, Egypt

Abstract

ABSTRACT Paleogene bats from Africa are rare with only scant records from Tunisia, Egypt, and Tanzania having been described in the past. Four new genera and six new species of microchiropteran bats are described here from the late Eocene (37–34 Ma) of the Fayum Depression in northern Egypt. Included among these new taxa are the first and only African record of a fossil rhinopomatid and the earliest African records of megadermatids, emballonurids, and vespertilionids. Additionally, a new genus and two new species of the Afro-Arabian bat family Philisidae are described. The new Fayum philisids are the oldest representatives of this family, are represented by the largest species thus far recorded for the group, and include one of the largest fossil bats known. Previous biogeographic reconstructions suggest that most Old World bat families had their origin in Laurasia but several modern bat families may have diversified only after their initial dispersal into Africa. Bats and primates may have entered Africa during the same dispersal event early in the Paleogene.